Carroll's relegation to the bench is not a good sign for the big man; he desperately needs a goal, and you'd think that Oldham at home would present an ideal opportunity to get on the scoresheet. The fact that Kenny has dropped him could mean that he's finally lost patience.

I can't believe this is Liverpool Football Club's 1st Team which came Second in the Premier League in 2008/9.WTF has happend?I keep hpoing we'll improve but to be honest we've gone backwards since 2008/9.How many of the purchases under Hodgson and Dalglish would get into that 2008/2009 1st Team?

Downing is warming up to come on. My anger level has just risen 10 notches. Best thing to happen to LFC this season is for Downing to break his legs. That way we don't see him in red shirt for a while!

there is no doubt Benitez assembled a great first XI, under tighter constraints Dalglish appears to be under now, but be an even more interesting comparison if you posted one of the sides Benitez played in early Cup competition that year.

Just to butt in - they may not have won a trophy but they were top scorers, and the best Liverpool performing team in the Premiership era with our highest points tally, they also swept aside a multi million pound Madrid side like they were Oldham at Anfield.

I suppose in theory you are correct, we did not win the Premiership nor the CL that year but the 08/09 performance all round was superb for fans which is why we remember it - but dont you recall the feeling of being in the title race up untill May ? Hopefully we can experience it again but it will take a few years.

The problem is most fans are happy finishing fourth that is what hands teams like Man U and Chelsea the title they think they have got the money and there is no way we can compete with them.I know(Septimus drama queen) we are still in the hunt for fourth with a team that is misfiring with 3 other teams who aren't exactly setting the world alight, anything is possible in this seasons premier league teams are losing games all the time, we need a string of wins no bloody draws before February with Spurs,Manure and Everton then lets see where we are in the league.

Sorry Septimus with fans like you in the crowd we would never have come back and won the Champions League in 05! Would you have been standing in the crowd singing YNWA at half time to give the team that lift in their soul,heart and brain that the fans were with them or would you be banging on about how shit we were first half and if we still had Owen,Heskey or Murphy we would be winning.The team is misfiring but it is no where near as shit as you go on it's embarrassing to read how our fans stick the knife in on our players now a days, no fucking patience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carroll proved a point to all those people on his back and hopefully this will be the boost he needed as I feel he just needs game time and is very young. We scored 4 goals without Downing's so-called "Assists" howz that a bad night for some of us who dont rate him. Downing's got a decade of premiership experience behind him and with the number of games he has played this season, his standard of football has been very poor and negative. Cannot expect Enrique to defend and take on players for him all the time. Its proved one thing, he'd make a great supersub!!!

it's not only winning trophies, but about the way we play, Rafa destroyed Houlliers team with Valencia. he was supposed to implement that mentality into his liverpool team he partially did see a video of liverpool build up play, and then look how our current players build up play especially the new signings, yep that's right aimlessly putting crosses in the box. today's game showed that if the team worked hard and provided space for carroll he will score, they did it against oldham, never did against any other premier league team, maybe there is a transition period but all the signs on heaven and earth don't really show any even a tiny sap of something great, just totally mediocre

It was a very offensive 4-1-4-1 with Gerrard and Jonjo pulling the strings in fromt of Jay, not something our players are used to and it showed in the first half, but paid dividends in the 2nd. Having 2 playmakers in the British mould was always going to benefit either the pacy Bellamy or the big Carroll up front where the whole team plays further back.

I disagree it was mediocre. We certainly did not look very good and Oldham got to play abit more than our premier league opponents but I think that was the idea. We were then able to attack forward, rather than sideways or backward, like if we had our fullbacks or wingers crossing across the goalmouth or Suarez waltzing around the penalty area.

For all Carroll's poor movement and different sense of positioning, the big man has a tremendous first touch that he can't use to great effect too close to the goal. Carroll is on target most of the time, except his shots often find the keeper or a defender when he's in the 6 yard box, which is where Enrique, Suarez and Downing love to put their crosses. Johnson and Adam like to cross from the corner of the 18 yard box, which is often in line with Carroll, and hence, he is never on the end of them. Whenever the crosses come in from a yard or 2 behind the 18 yard box, that is where Carroll has the chance to take aim and make full use of his powerful shot, like he did against Man City last season, this game, and while he was at Newcastle. This can only happen when we aren't trying to unpick a parked bus that we have already forced into a more compact shape. The fact that Shelvey and Gerrard can and will attempt to shoot from further out will pull defenders out and we saw this on display today. This constitutes but 1 sign of something great.

Downing also scored. This means we finally have some luck coming our way! Our first goal was a little fortuitious too, but it managed to set the tone for the match. Much like we did not deserve 3-0 to City, We didn't deserve 5-1 here either. Both matches were closer than the score looked.

I know this might sound harsh ( or does it ) but what is the point of playing Aurelio , apart from the regular fullbacks we have Kelly Flanagan Robinson , Wilson out on loan , don't get it , still let's hope we can do something in the cup like win it and the other cup too , like the man said KENNY MOVES IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS , HIS WONDERS TO PERFORM , fingers crossed

I didn't and you didn't mention 2005/06??????????That team of 08/09 caused just as much frustration as this with failing to beat promoted and so called lesser teams look at the results before the end of January draws against Hull and Stoke at home draw away at Stoke and Wigan the failure to beat Fulham and West Ham at home but wins at Chelsea and Everton you could actually draw comparisons with these 2 teams then actually saying one team is better if you compare half season results!!!!!!!!!!!